Saudi King Names Son Prince Miteb as National Guard Minister

By Glen Carey -
May 27, 2013

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah named
his son Prince Miteb bin Abdullah minister of the National
Guard, as part of a push to elevate a younger generation of
royals to senior positions amid turmoil in the Middle East.

King Abdullah, who is 89 this year, turned the National
Guard presidency into a Cabinet post, Saudi state TV reported
today, citing a royal decree. Prince Miteb was the commander of
the 110,000-men National Guard and a state minister before the
decree.

The Saudi monarch is promoting a younger generation of
royals into senior positions as the world’s largest oil exporter
confronts unprecedented political instability in the Middle East
and economic changes at home.

In November, Mohammed bin Nayef, a nephew born in 1959, was
appointed as interior minister. Three months later, Abdullah
named Khalid bin Bandar, a graduate of the British Royal
Military Academy at Sandhurst, as the governor of Riyadh.

The latest move will “raise his son’s profile to a
ministerial level so he is on equal grounds with relatives who
already hold that rank,” Theodore Karasik, director of research
at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in
Dubai, said in a phone interview. “It also evens the playing
field between the security services.”

Saudi Arabia’s three main security branches are the
Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Defense and the National
Guard. Last month, Abdullah appointed Prince Fahad bin Abdullah
as deputy defense minister, replacing Prince Khalid bin Sultan,
the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

Heir Apparent

Abdullah’s heir apparent is Crown Prince Salman bin
Abdulaziz, who was born in 1935. Salman is also the kingdom’s
defense minister. Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz was appointed in
February as second deputy prime minister after serving as
intelligence chief and a special adviser to the king.

Since the Arab revolts, Abdullah has been seeking to ease
domestic problems with the potential to stoke similar unrest,
such as unemployment. About a quarter of Saudis aged between 20
and 30 are out of work. The kingdom is investing $500 billion to
build industrial cities in the desert and new airports and
universities, as it seeks to create jobs and diversify the
economy away from oil.